General elections and failed attempts to have new electoral law

On December 6, 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari eventually withheld his assent to the Electoral Act (amendment) Bill 2018 after keeping the nation guessing. This was the fourth time he did so in a row, having thrice turned down the bill before the December 6 final blow.

The President justified his decision in separate letters he wrote to the President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara, on December 6.

The letter reads partly, “I am declining assent to the bill principally because I am concerned that passing a new electoral bill this far into the electoral process for the 2019 general elections which commenced under the 2015 Electoral Act, could create some uncertainty about the applicable legislation to govern the process. Any real or apparent change to the rules this close to the elections may provide an opportunity for disruption and confusion in respect of which law governs the electoral process.

“This leads me to believe that it is in the best interest of the country and our democracy for the National Assembly to specifically state in the bill that the Electoral Act will come into effect and be applicable to elections commencing after the 2019 elections.”

On face value, these reasons sound convincing and the President should have been applauded, but he isn’t getting that because of the feeling in the larger society that Buhari and the All Progressives Congress may be harbouring other fears. Many observers wonder why, at each point of rejecting the bill in its tortuous journey, different excuses were given for not signing it.

The real issues and implications for elections

The aim of reworking the electoral law is to deepen democracy and ultimately, to deliver free, transparent and credible election results. It is for this purpose that the 2006 Electoral Act was considered an improvement on the version preceding it; same for the 2010 Electoral Act, which was seen as a better one that delivered the elections in 2015.

The card reader, believed to be the real reason the bill was rejected, was included in the bill as the sole means of accreditation of voters. The new provision made it so tight that where a card reader fails, voting in the affected centre will be put on hold for 24 hours for the problem to be fixed. This was to prevent the manipulation of the accreditation process in anyway by resorting to manual methods at the slightest opportunity.

It is interesting that while the ruling APC government is uncomfortable with the provision, the opposition parties led by the Peoples Democratic Party want the card reader admitted.

A senior lawyer, Chief Godwin Isa, analysed the setback of not having the new Electoral Act, particularly as it relates to the card reader. He said, “By rejecting this move, the country has taken two steps backwards in embracing electronic voting. The whole process should graduate us into full electronic voting, which is the global trend. The last amendment (2018 proposals) tried to move us from a point where the legality of the card reader was questioned; to a point where it would become fully recognised by the law.”

Naturally, the PDP, through its Presidential Campaign Council, shouted the loudest in a statement by the Director, Media and Publicity, Kola Ologbondiyan. The PPCO stated, “President Buhari’s repeated refusal to sign amendments passed to check rigging of election, raises issues of his sincerity of purpose and has the capacity to trigger political unrest and violence, which can, in turn, truncate our hard-earned democracy.”

A former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Dr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), protested the President’s decision in a letter he penned to the National Assembly. Buhari was not completely left in the cold, as some presidential candidates actually backed his decision. About 40 presidential aspirants under the aegis of ‘Forum of Presidential Candidates’ praised Buhari.

“The time is obviously inauspicious to tinker with the electoral law, especially when the process leading to the 2019 general elections is already fully on course,” the group said in a statement by the presidential candidate of Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance, Alhaji Mohammed Kabir, and others.

It is noteworthy to mention at this point that though INEC has said that it will no longer use the Incident Forms next month, its explanations that it will ensure that things go the right way is anything but convincing to many Nigerians and the opposition candidates.

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